Tutorial - Handmade Wooden Buttons Stash-Bust

Don't know if you know, but it is September and I've joined a group of crazy craft bloggers in a quest to "bust some stash". I know it sounds violent and conjures up images of hairy-faced goons going at it in dark alleys. But I assure you, it is quite peaceful and good.

It is called Stashbusting September and it is being run by the lovely Robin over at The T-Shirt Diaries. The goal is to craft using stuff we already own. In other words: NO shopping for new craft supplies. NO thrifting. NO getting other people to buy stuff for us. NO combination or permutation of craft purchase for the WHOLE of September on pain of death (okay I made that "death" part up). But you get the picture.

And seriously, it is ridiculous how much of a delicious piece of cake this is going to be. I laugh in the face of this challenge. Hee hee hee. And that is because I have SO MUCH CRAFT STUFF! I have been hoarding things since 1968 in preparation for this very moment. Scads, gobs, reams, hillocks, heaps, piles, oodles, stacks and yes, plenty o' stuff with which to make glorious crafts. No problem. Easy peasy. BRING IT ON BABY!!!!!!!!!!!

Shall I begin?...

First up: Handmade Wooden Buttons!

Break out your electric miter saw AND an old dowel from that closet you ripped out and re-did last year.

Cut the dowel up into small 1/4 inch discs. I cut out a whole whack of them. See?

Take the power sander and sand down all those little discs nice and smooth. Don't sand off your hands. You will need those later.

Also, wear a skirt while doing this so the neighbours can titter at you from their driveway.

Clamp a disc.

With a small bit, drill 2 tiny holes through your disc.

Voila! Button! Repeat this hole drilling process for all your discs.

Now you could leave it at that. That would do nicely.

But I wanted some fancy buttons so I took a sheet of paper and created several designs.

I scanned my finished designs into the computer. I brought them into Photoshop, copy/pasted the designs to my heart's delight, and made a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet full of button designs. So pretty.

The next part I did not photograph.

To make a transfer of button designs:

To make a transfer of my designs, I used freezer paper and white tissue paper. I ironed a piece of white tissue paper to the shiny side of the freezer paper. No steam. I cut this combined paper to exactly 8 1/2 x 11 and put it in my printer. I printed off the designs on the tissue paper side. I carefully separated the freezer paper from the white tissue paper and put aside the freezer paper. The white tissue paper is a transfer of designs that when Mod Podged onto my buttons will dry clear; only the design will be visible. (This process is inspired by this post of Sarah's at Dolls and Daydreams. Thanks Sarah!).

So I took my white tissue paper transfer, and some other colourful tissue papers and cut out several circles slightly smaller than the size of my buttons.

I took out the Mod Podge, and a little paint brush.

With the paintbrush, I applied some Mod Podge to the button surface and placed my little tissue paper transfer onto the button. And applied more Mod Podge on top of the transfer.

I allowed it to dry (mostly) and then traced the design with an indelible marker.

And then painted it with liquid acrylic paint! The fun part. I did this with some of my buttons.

Onto other buttons, I simply Mod Podged the pretty circles of tissue paper that I had cut out earlier.

And here are the many buttons I made! Yippee!

Have a superb stash-busting day!

P.S. Linkin' here.

Tutorial: Handmade Covered Buttons

I LUV covered buttons! Have you noticed a spike in their popularity recently? I have. I'm paying attention over here ya know. So I devised this handy tutorial that avoids the trip to the button store altogether and allows you to make these little babies with stuff from around the house.

Let's do it!

You will need the following:

1. fabric scrap
2. needle and thread
3. polyester batting (not shown)
4. flat plastic (I keep the plastic packaging that comes my way for craft purposes)
5. felt scrap
6. narrow ribbon
7. circle template or round thing
8. pencil or marker
9. scissors
10. craft glue

To begin, draw out 2 circles on your plastic. Cut them out. If your plastic is too thick it'll be difficult to cut out. I use thin, cuttable plastic and layer a few pieces to make it sturdy.

Put a dab of glue on one of your plastic circles.

Place your second circle on top. Let dry.

Draw a circle from your chosen fabric that is about twice as wide as your little plastic circles.

Cut it out! No really, cut the fabric circle out. With a needle and thread, sew a running stitch all around the edge of the circle.

Pull up the ends of the thread just enough to make a little fabric cup.

In your little cup, layer a few pieces of batting. On top of that, place your glued plastic circles.

Now pull up the thread ends tightly so that the fabric comes around and over the batting and plastic circles. Tie the ends tightly.

If you flip the thing around, it should now look like a button! But, patience, we're not done quite yet...

Trim the excess thread. (One handed photography, not too shaky, eh?)

Cut out a little felt circle, slightly smaller than your button. Take a large needle and a short piece of narrow ribbon. Thread your needle with the ribbon.

Create a button shank by sewing your ribbon through the centre of the felt circle as shown in the next photo.

Trim the excess ribbon.

Here's a shot of the shank.

Next, sew your ribbon down onto the felt so that it stays in place.

Then put a whole whack of glue on this side of the felt. This will hold the felt to the button and will help keep the ribbon shank intact as well.

Place your gluey felt circle on the button bottom.

Here's a side view.

Using some nice matching thread or embroidery thread, blanket stitch the edge of the felt to the button.

And that's it! You are DONE! A beautiful inexpensive covered button!

I made a whole bunch of them...

They are kinda addictive...

Let the button-making begin!

I'm joining a few link parties today:

Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog and also Lucky Linky Tuesday at Lucky Star Lane!